| For
some time now I have been without a work shop. My wife
and I moved into the city and I just don't have a spot
for my tools. They have been stored at my fathers shop
and get good use there by him and myself but for me to
make the 4 hour drive whenever I needed to use my tools
was getting intolerable. I needed to set up a temporary
shop here in the city so I could reduce my travel time
to when I needed to use the "big" tools, 1
or twice a year.
Part of this temporary shop required a portable jointer.
I already have a 6" stationary Delta jointer so
I saw a 6" Delta jointer on sale
through Rockler online and ordered it. Costing $199 on
sale plus a bit for shipping it arrives a short time
later.
My first impression was good the box was quite heavy
meaning more metal parts less plastic parts. I put all
the components out and looked over them. Everything seamed
to be fine, the knives looked good. The fence looked
a bit under built though, being a hollow cast aluminum.
I assembled all the components without any hold-ups
and proceeded to plane a test piece. It planed beautifully.
I started it out with a piece of rough sawn 2" x
6" spruce and it easily planed a 1/16" of the
face. No sign of being overworked.
When I went to plane the edge I noticed that the fence
had a tendency to shift slightly as I snugged up the
adjustment knob. The torque from the knob pulls the fence
out of square slightly (maybe 1/2 a degree). I found
this to be quite annoying and started to compensate by
starting with the fence just under 90 degrees and tighten
the knob until it was truly 90. Checking with my square
as I tighten the knob. This turned out to be a very simple
fix but I think Delta needs to re-think their design
slightly.
Overall I think the Model 37-070 Delta
jointer is pretty good. I found nothing other then
the fence that I think would need improvement. Other
than that I think that this jointer will be a
tool that most wood worker would be happy with. |
